WALKING THE STREETS.—A Parable.
Have you ever walked through the crowded streets of a great city?
What shoals of people pouring in from opposite quarters, like torrentsmeeting in a narrow valley! You would imagine it impossible for them to get through; yet all pass on their way without stop or molestation.
Were each man to proceed exactly in the line in which he set out, he could not move many paces without encountering another full in his track. They would strike against each other, fall back, push forward again, block up the way for themselves and those after them, and throw the whole street into confusion. All this is avoided by every man’syielding a little.
Instead of advancing square, stiff, with arms stuck out, every one who knows how to walk the streets glides along, his arms close, his body oblique and flexible, his track gently winding, leaving now a few inches on this side, now on that, so as to pass and be passed without touching, in the smallest possible space.
He pushes no one into the kennel, nor goes into it himself. Bymutual accommodation, the path, though narrow, holds them all.
He goes neither much faster nor much slower than those who go in the same direction. In the first case he would elbow, in the second he would be elbowed.
If any accidental stop arises, from a carriage crossing, a cask rolled, a pickpocket detected, or the like, he does not increase the bustle by rushing into the midst of it, but checks his pace, and patiently waits for its removal.
Like this is themarch of life.
In our progress through the world a thousand things stand continually in our way. Some people meet us full in the face with opposite opinions and inclinations. Some stand before us in our pursuit of pleasure or interest, and others follow close upon our heels. Now, we ought in the first place to consider, that theroad is as free for one as another; and therefore we have no right to expect that persons should go out of their way to let us pass, any more than we out of ours. Then, if we do not mutually yield and accommodate a little, it is clear that we must all stand still, or be thrown into a perpetual confusion of squeezing and jostling. If we are all in a hurry to get on as fast as possible to some point of pleasure or interest in our view, and do not occasionally hold back, when the crowd gathers, and angry contentions arise, we shall only augment the tumult, without advancing our own progress. On the whole, it is our business to move onward, steadily, but quietly, obstructing others as little as possible, yielding a little to this man’s prejudices, and that man’s desires, and doing everything in our power to make thejourney of lifeeasy to all our fellow-travellers as well as to ourselves.
Presence of Mind, p.192.EVENING XVI.
Presence of Mind, p.192.EVENING XVI.
Presence of Mind, p.192.EVENING XVI.